From 'the bible" of middle school language arts teaching, Atwell, N. (1998). In the MIddle: New Understandings about reading, writing, and learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
"A theme is an idea about life that comes through the story. The richer the characters and changes in the characters, the deeper and more interesting the themes. Often authors aren't aware of all the themes threading through their stories until the writing is over.But generally, they do have a concept of big idea they want to explore by writing a story about it (the tragedy of kid-to-kid violence, based on social class, in The Outsiders; the danger of blindly following leaders in The Chocolate War; the horror of war in The FIghting Ground and Fallen Angels; prejudice and its consequences in The Drowning of Stephan Jones by Bette Greene; teen pressure in Jumping the Nail by Eve Bunting; fear of big government in I Am The Cheese). Cythnthia Voight calls theme" 'Long-line thoughts - ideas that I want to run through the whole story" (in Lloyd 1987,62). (403).
"References to themes, and connections among books by theme, are an important sign of literary maturity. After living the novel, students step outside of it and ponder its big ideas" (276).
Questions to consider with your blog buddy:
How does the thematic braiding activity sharpen connections between the literature and the student's world?
Mary's Thoughts
Within literature study it is essential to draw real connections, both personal and world, for adolescents to see relevance regarding what they read (the literature under study) to life and the world they live in. Themes are a way for students to broaden connections as they consider their own experience, familiarity with other texts associated with the identified theme, and how the literature choice relates to the world in which they live. When students can make text to personal, text to text and text to world connections, they are making connections that carry with them out of the classroom into their life and world. This activity expands the notion of literacy to include visual imagery and recorded narrative. Through the process of engaging in multimodal design, students are able to represent the process of their thinking about the reading.
Creating a thematic braiding digitally could be done with many digital tools. The point of the activity is not to learn how to use the digital tool, but to create a meaningful multimodal composition, using image & text. As you develop your thematic braiding, consider multiple possibilities within the same novel. For example, within my chosen novel, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, I can identify several themes: uniformity, oppression, truth-seeking, childhood, and questioning authority. I chose the theme, questioning authority because that is the one I could see might be most meaningful when making personal, text-to text, and real life connections within my braiding. This activity provokes deep thinking about themes, and these themes connect us with the world we live in. Searching for corresponding images and quotes, involves more critical thinking about the theme and the novel under study, making meaningful connections between text and world. This activity ensures that students delve deeply within the text as they ponder choices of theme, image and a central quote for the presentation. Publishing the presentation on the WIKI, gives student work a public audience. Students are writing and composing in multimodal ways not only for teachers but for peers as well.
1.) As you develop your thematic braiding, first determine what genre your novel is (memoir, horror, historical fiction, romance, fantasy, science fiction, contemporary realistic fiction, fable, etc.). This will help when finding other texts (possibly of the same genre) that might be connected with this theme.
2.) Once you determine your theme, search for a quote that represents your theme (see below).
3.) As you make your connections, notice how this novel connects in a personal way (text to person connection), connects to the world (text to world connection) and think of another text, classic or contemporary(text to text connection) that connects well with the books chosen theme.
Example
Student
Mary Wright
Novel
Lowry, L. 1993. The Giver. New York: Del Laurel-Leaf.
Genre
Dysutopian
Theme
Questioning Authority
Quote
Page 74
“The books in his own dwelling were the only books that Jonas had ever seen. He had never known that other books existed.
But this room’s walls were completely covered by bookcases, filled, which reached to the ceiling. There must have been hundreds-perhaps thousands- of books, their titles embossed in shiny letters.
Jonas stared at them. He couldn’t imagine what the thousands of pages contained. Could there be rules beyond the rules that governed the community?”
Personal
connection
I remember my sister going into a convent when I was seven years old. Though very young, I questioned why the rules she needed to abide by in the convent were different from our society as expressed in the vows she took: (chastity – no boyfriends, obedience – she had to maintain silence and meditation hours, and, poverty – she had to sew her own habit and wear it every day)
World connection/question
Why do different social/cultural worlds have different rules? How does this help shape an identity?
Technology Knowledge
There are many ways to build a thematic connections between your students and the literature under study. Here is some guidance on using Google Docs Presentation as one method:
1. Creating a Google Account
2. Directions for making a thematic braiding with Google accounts and posting it on the wiki.
1.) Go to Google Docs. Sign in with your ggogle user name and password.
2.) Click Create. There will be a dropdown menu- choose google docs presentation.
3.) You will create three slides. Each slide will have text and an image.
4.) The first slide will have your theme, the full bibliographic citation of our book, and the genre. You will also copy and paste an image of a braid on the first slide from your Flickr (creative commons) account.
5.) Click slide in the top menu bar to add a new slide.
6.) The second slide will feature a quote (could be long- mine is three short paragraphs), and an image which relates to the quote.
7.) The third slide will list connections: personal, world, and text to text.
Assignment
Thematic Braiding
You will complete a Thematic Braiding activity to explore theme, text-to text connections, personal connections, and text to world connections/questions associated with your assigned novel. You will be using the digital tool Google Docs presentation to complete this activity and post it on the class WIKI.
Design a title slide with a visual braid as metaphor, identifying your assigned novel, author, theme and genre. Using theme as a center point, draw connections to your personal life, to the world at large and to another texts (use full citation:MLA or APA) as you braid your own understanding of the novel under study.
Once you are satisfied with your google docs presentation, Click on File at the top of the google doc page on left and scroll down to publish to the WEB. Copy the Code there. Return to the Wiki under Our Digital Work and click on Thematic Braidings. CLick Edit. Put your cursor in the box by your name. GO up to the top menu bar and click widgets. Click on the Widget icon at the top (looks like a tv screen) and scroll down to Other html. CLick on that and paste in your embed code there. Remember to save. Your presentation should be visible. You can always return to your google docs site to edit.
Thematic Braidings
What the Literature Says?
From 'the bible" of middle school language arts teaching, Atwell, N. (1998). In the MIddle: New Understandings about reading, writing, and learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann."A theme is an idea about life that comes through the story. The richer the characters and changes in the characters, the deeper and more interesting the themes. Often authors aren't aware of all the themes threading through their stories until the writing is over.But generally, they do have a concept of big idea they want to explore by writing a story about it (the tragedy of kid-to-kid violence, based on social class, in The Outsiders; the danger of blindly following leaders in The Chocolate War; the horror of war in The FIghting Ground and Fallen Angels; prejudice and its consequences in The Drowning of Stephan Jones by Bette Greene; teen pressure in Jumping the Nail by Eve Bunting; fear of big government in I Am The Cheese). Cythnthia Voight calls theme" 'Long-line thoughts - ideas that I want to run through the whole story" (in Lloyd 1987,62). (403).
"References to themes, and connections among books by theme, are an important sign of literary maturity. After living the novel, students step outside of it and ponder its big ideas" (276).
Questions to consider with your blog buddy:
How does the thematic braiding activity sharpen connections between the literature and the student's world?Mary's Thoughts
Within literature study it is essential to draw real connections, both personal and world, for adolescents to see relevance regarding what they read (the literature under study) to life and the world they live in. Themes are a way for students to broaden connections as they consider their own experience, familiarity with other texts associated with the identified theme, and how the literature choice relates to the world in which they live. When students can make text to personal, text to text and text to world connections, they are making connections that carry with them out of the classroom into their life and world. This activity expands the notion of literacy to include visual imagery and recorded narrative. Through the process of engaging in multimodal design, students are able to represent the process of their thinking about the reading.
Creating a thematic braiding digitally could be done with many digital tools. The point of the activity is not to learn how to use the digital tool, but to create a meaningful multimodal composition, using image & text. As you develop your thematic braiding, consider multiple possibilities within the same novel. For example, within my chosen novel, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, I can identify several themes: uniformity, oppression, truth-seeking, childhood, and questioning authority. I chose the theme, questioning authority because that is the one I could see might be most meaningful when making personal, text-to text, and real life connections within my braiding. This activity provokes deep thinking about themes, and these themes connect us with the world we live in. Searching for corresponding images and quotes, involves more critical thinking about the theme and the novel under study, making meaningful connections between text and world. This activity ensures that students delve deeply within the text as they ponder choices of theme, image and a central quote for the presentation. Publishing the presentation on the WIKI, gives student work a public audience. Students are writing and composing in multimodal ways not only for teachers but for peers as well.
1.) As you develop your thematic braiding, first determine what genre your novel is (memoir, horror, historical fiction, romance, fantasy, science fiction, contemporary realistic fiction, fable, etc.). This will help when finding other texts (possibly of the same genre) that might be connected with this theme.
2.) Once you determine your theme, search for a quote that represents your theme (see below).
3.) As you make your connections, notice how this novel connects in a personal way (text to person connection), connects to the world (text to world connection) and think of another text, classic or contemporary(text to text connection) that connects well with the books chosen theme.
Example
“The books in his own dwelling were the only books that Jonas had ever seen. He had never known that other books existed.
But this room’s walls were completely covered by bookcases, filled, which reached to the ceiling. There must have been hundreds-perhaps thousands- of books, their titles embossed in shiny letters.
Jonas stared at them. He couldn’t imagine what the thousands of pages contained. Could there be rules beyond the rules that governed the community?”
connection
Technology Knowledge
There are many ways to build a thematic connections between your students and the literature under study. Here is some guidance on using Google Docs Presentation as one method:1. Creating a Google Account
2. Directions for making a thematic braiding with Google accounts and posting it on the wiki.
2.) Click Create. There will be a dropdown menu- choose google docs presentation.
3.) You will create three slides. Each slide will have text and an image.
4.) The first slide will have your theme, the full bibliographic citation of our book, and the genre. You will also copy and paste an image of a braid on the first slide from your Flickr (creative commons) account.
5.) Click slide in the top menu bar to add a new slide.
6.) The second slide will feature a quote (could be long- mine is three short paragraphs), and an image which relates to the quote.
7.) The third slide will list connections: personal, world, and text to text.
Assignment
Thematic BraidingYou will complete a Thematic Braiding activity to explore theme, text-to text connections, personal connections, and text to world connections/questions associated with your assigned novel. You will be using the digital tool Google Docs presentation to complete this activity and post it on the class WIKI.
Design a title slide with a visual braid as metaphor, identifying your assigned novel, author, theme and genre. Using theme as a center point, draw connections to your personal life, to the world at large and to another texts (use full citation:MLA or APA) as you braid your own understanding of the novel under study.
Assessment of your Assignment
T
Sharing your work on our wiki.
Once you are satisfied with your google docs presentation, Click on File at the top of the google doc page on left and scroll down to publish to the WEB. Copy the Code there. Return to the Wiki under Our Digital Work and click on Thematic Braidings. CLick Edit.Put your cursor in the box by your name. GO up to the top menu bar and click widgets.
Click on the Widget icon at the top (looks like a tv screen) and scroll down to Other html.
CLick on that and paste in your embed code there.
Remember to save. Your presentation should be visible. You can always return to your google docs site to edit.